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Life is a progress, and not a station.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
 

 

Wednesday, December 30, 1998

Persistently confident

Success is nothing more than failure which has persisted long enough to achieve excellence. If you don’t get it right the first time, by all means keep on going. What more powerful confidence could there be, than the confidence which is born out of persisting in spite of failure?

The fear of failure keeps most people out of the game. Yet once you’ve experienced failure, and picked yourself back up again, what’s left to fear? Fear of failure is only for the weak and arrogant, for those who foolishly think that somehow they can achieve success without paying the price. Those who know true success also know that failure is not to be feared.

No thinking person would intentionally set out to fail. We must give our best effort, and highest expectations, to each attempt. And if we fall short of the mark it is no disgrace. It is in fact another rung we’ve climbed on the ladder to eventual success. Out of failure comes the confidence and the determination to succeed.

— Ralph Marston

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Copyright ©1998 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All Rights Reserved. The Daily Motivator is provided for your personal, non-commercial use only. Other than personal sharing, please do not re-distribute without permission.